Presidential forum upsets UNR students

Jul. 26, 2007

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Plans for an August presidential candidate forum at the University of Nevada, Reno sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution might kill a similar event organized by several student groups.

The student organizers had booked a campus venue, consulted with local law enforcement agencies, secured funding and sent invitations to the presidential candidates for the Sept. 19 event, student Michael Graf said.

Throughout the months of planning, Graf said university administrators never mentioned another forum was being scheduled. He learned of it through a Reno Gazette-Journal story.

"I really think the university sold us out on this one," Graf said. "If I would have known Brookings was doing this all along, we would've never done our event."

University spokeswoman Jane Tors said the university was approached by the Brookings Institution recently and the forum came together quickly.

The Brookings Institution and ABC News are sponsoring two forums at UNR through a project called Opportunity 08, which could include the four leading Republicans on Aug. 20 and four leading Democrats on Aug. 22.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Thursday he likely will attend Aug. 22. No candidates had responded to attend the Sept. 19 forum.

Graf remained hopeful the student groups can help shape the Opportunity 08 forum, saying university administrators and representatives from the Brookings Institution have indicated they want to coordinate with the students.

"We're OK if they let students get involved," he said. "But it still probably means our event will not happen on the 19th.

"The main thing we want to get across is that the students want to have a say in what is going on with this election."

The student event is sponsored by the Nevada Committee on Foreign Relations, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Northern Nevada International Center, Young Democrats, Republican Youth Majority and Model United Nations.

Melissa Skolfield, spokeswoman for the Brookings Institution, said she welcomes student involvement.

"We certainly would want the students involved in the August forums," she said. "I hope and assume that will work out."

Tors said it wasn't the administration's intent to preempt the student-organized forum and had hoped to have more than one event.

"We have these two opportunities that came from very different directions," she said. "One bubbled up from the campus and the other being a national effort that has reached out to us.

"Now we have the opportunity to bring all of this together to shape a successful event for the campus and the community at-large."

Brian Bedera, chairman of the campus-based Republican Youth Majority, said he hopes the Sept. 19 event can be a venue for the second-tier candidates who aren't invited to the Opportunity 08 forum.

"We've been working on this one for the past four months and hadn't heard of any of these other events until yesterday," he said. "We've been pretty much in the dark."